grimmer



A. S. GRIMMER.

SHEET FEEDING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED OCT. H. 1910. RENEWED JAN. 10,1916.

1,1 94,0 1 2. Patented Aug. 8, 1916.

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SHEET FEEDING MACHINE.

APPLICA'TION FILED OCT. 11, mo. RENEWED JAN. 10.1916.

1 1 94,0 1 2 Patented Aug. 8, 1916.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2- 14 1.5 Fig. 5, A

if jf an sraras curren- AUSTIN S. GRIMMER, OF FLUSHING, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE AUTOPRESS COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

SHEET-FEEDING MACHINE.

Specification of 'Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 8, 1916.

Applicationfiled October 11, 1910, Serial No. 586,500. Renewed January 10, 1916.. Serial No. 71,381.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AUSTIN S. GRIMMER, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Flushing, Queens county, and State of New York, Have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sheet-Feeding Machines, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to printing presses and more especially to the sheet positioning devices in presses in which the impressioncylinder has a reciprocatory or both a eciprocatory and an oscillatory travel.

Objects of the invention are to provide in such a machine for accurate and exact placing of successive sheets upon the impression cylinder to be printed, notwithstanding any variable springing of the cylinder driving mechanism due to divergent speeds of the machine; to provide further in such a machine for rendering the gripperclosing mechanism operative by the movement of the impression cylinder toward the positioned sheet; to provide for the grippers taking the sheet while the front stops are at rest in registering position whereby danger of disturbing the positioned sheet by the movement of the front stops is avoided; to provide simple and eflicient novel mechanisms to effect the results described.

These and other objects of invention will in part be obvious and will in part more fully appear herein.

The invention consists in the novel parts, constructions, arrangements, combinations, and improvements, herein shown and described.

-The accompanying drawings, referred to herein and forming a part hereof, illustrate one embodiment of the invention, the same serving in connection with the description herein to explain the principles of the invention.

Of the drawings: Figure 1 is a side elevation of portions of a machine constructed in accordance with the principles of the invention, and showing the gripper opened to receive the 'sheet; Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the gripper closed upon the sheet;

Fig. 3 is a similar view showing the front stop raised, and the gripper actuating devices moved to avoid interference with the gripper on the return travel of the impresslon cylinder; Fig. 4 is a fragmentary plan view of the same mechanisms as are shown.

in the preceding figures; Fig. 5 is a detail of the gripper, and shows the connection between the gripper and the shaft; and F 1g. 6 is a detail of certain of the gripper actuating devices.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example one embodiment. of the invention, a printing couple consisting of a traveling bed and cylinder are provided, which may be of known and approved form. The impression cylinder 1 is connected to the bed 2 by suitable means,

. such as a gear 3 fixed to the impression cylinder and meshing witha rack 4 Xed to the bed. This causes the bed and cylinder to .move together first in one direction, then in the other, at the same surface speed to carry the sheet through the impression, the cylinder oscillating to and fro about its own axis. The impression. cylinder has in addition'a reciprocatory travel to and fro, re-

, ceiving the sheet at or near one end of such which means may be of suitable and convenient form. The illustrated form thereof includes a feed board. or other support 10, upon which the sheets may be laid or along which they may be progressed in a suitable manner. Suitable front stops for stopping and positioning the sheet are provided, the embodied form thereof comprising the downwardly extending fingers 11 supported upon the rods 12. Each rod 12 is mounted within a sleeve 13, the end of the rod 12 being threaded into a knurled nut 14' v mounted in a slot in the sleeve 13. The nut 14 provides a nice adjustment for the fingers 11 and a set screw 15 securely clamps the rod 12 tokeep the fingers 11 in adjusted position. A curved guard 16 projects from the finger 11 above the sheet as itis fed up to the stop and prevents bounding or turning of the edge. The sleeve 13 is longitua meet ta such as the set screw 21.

dinally adjustable along the shaft 17 and is clamped in positionby the clamping screw 18. The shaft 17 is mounted in suitable bearings 19 upon the press frame 20.

Means are provided for lifting and droppingthe front gages at the proper time, and the embodied form thereof comprises an arm .20 fixed to the shaft 17 by suitable means, The arm 20 .is shown provided at its end with a cam roll 22.- A lever 23 serves to actuate the arm 20 to lift the front stopsand to permit them to drop. The lever 23 is pivoted at 24 upon the rod 25 mounted upon the machine frame. At the other end said lever 23 is provided with a cam roll 26, which cooperates with a cam 27 upon the shaft 28. A spring 29 serves to hold the cam roll 26 to its cam 27. The lever 23 is also utilized in the present embodiment for other functions, as will be hereinafter described.

The impression cylinder 1 is provided with grippers 30 mounted upon a shaft 31 carried by said impression cylinder. Means are provided by the invention for opening the grippers and causing them to close upon the sheet at a particular point in the lineal travel of the impression cylinder, whereby the successive sheets are positioned absolutely the same upon the impression cylinder irrespective of variations in the exact length of travel of the impression cylinder due to variations in the press speed, or to other reasons. The embodied form of such means comprises a cam face 32 formed upon the end of the lever 23 and a recessed or cut away portion 33 at the end of said cam face.

Mounted upon the impression cylinder 1 is an arm 34 provided with a cam roll 35 for cooperating with the parts 32 and 33. The arm' 34 is fixed to a shaft 36 mounted upon the impression cylinder 1. Suitable connections are provided between the shaft 36 and the gripper shaft 21, and said connections are preferably provided at each gripper. The embodied form thereof comprises an arm 37 fixed to the shaft 36. The end of said arm is provided with teeth or notches 38 meshing with corresponding teeth or notches in the end of an arm 39, which arm is fixed to the gripper shaft 31.

A spring 40 shown conveniently coiled about the shaft- 36 acts between said shaft vand the impression cylinder 1 to hold the grippers in the closedposition. The arm 39 is acted upon by a spring &1 in compression between an arm or lug 4:2 formed on the arm 39 and a suitable bearing surface 43 upon the impression cylinder 1. The arm 39 is fixed upon the gripper shaft 31 by suitable means such as pin 44. This spring 41 serves as a safety device to hold the gripper closed in case the spring 4E0 should break or otherwise fail, thus preventing the grippers from flyingopenat a -.time when injury to the" machine might result. Obviously, either springwould serve alone to operate the grippers. Means are provided also for adjustment of each gripper angular-1y upon the gripper shaft 31 to regulate the bite of each individual gripper. Meansare also pro- ,vided'by one feature of the invention for preventing the gripper from moving so far out of position as to be liable to injure the machine in the event that the securing means should become loose when-the machine is in operation or that the pressman should fail to secure any gripper during adjustment. Referring particularly to Fig. 5, in the embodied form of such means, the gripper shaft- 31 is provided with a longitudinal groove 50 the groove '50. A set screw 545is threaded into the gripper and rests upon the outer face of the key 52. The gripper thus is capable of a slight angular movement for the purpose of adjusting its bite against the surface of the cylinder to a nicety by reason of the sidewise movement or play of the key 52 in the slot 50, while at the same time the key and slot .connection will prevent the gripper flying loosely about the gripper shaft in case the fastening means therefor should not be tightened or should work loose.

loo

The set screw has also always the same bearing surface against the key, and there is also a true clamping or binding surface between the key and the gripper shaft, thus facilitating the accurate setting of the grippers.

The manner of operation ofthe hereinbefore described mechanism is substantially as follows: The sheet to be printed is positioned against the front stop fingers 11, and referring to Fig. 1', the impression cylinder 1 is traveling toward the left with the grippers 3O opened to receive the sheet. The grippers are opened by the cam roll 35 contacting with the cam surface 32, the arm 34: rocking the shaft 36 to open the grippers 30 against the force of the springs 10 and 41 by means of the connections described. As the impression cylinder approaches the end of its movement, cam roll 35 passes beyond the surface 32 into the recess 33, thus allowing the gripper 30 to close upon the sheet as just at the instant prior to theend of the movement of the cylinder 1. This. will cause the sheet to be moved back slightly by the gripper away from the front stop finger 11, as shown in Fig. 2 just prior to the lifting of the front stop'to permit the sheet to pass. It will be' understood from the foregoing that the gripper closing means is rendered operative by the movement of the cylinder toward the sheet, and that this operation is desirable to insure the release of the arm 34 by the cam 32 each time notwithstanding slight variations in the action of the cylinder-driving mechanism, such for instance as may be due to the spring of the parts. The impression cylinder now begins its movement towardthe right, referring to Figs. 1, 2, and 3, and the lever 23 is moved to lift the front stops to permit the sheet to pass and at the same time to prevent interference with the cam roll 35 so that the closed gripper holding the sheet in position upon the cylinder will not be disturbed during such return movement. The sheet having been moved away from the stop, is not disturbed by the lifting of the stop. This operation has the advantage of causing the gripper to always seize the sheet when the edge of the sheet and the cylinder are in precisely the same relative position. That is to say, the sheet being positioned by the front gages mounted independent of the cylinder upon the frame and the grippers being released by the cam shoulder 33 which is also mounted upon the frame independent of the cylinder, the sheet will be taken when the cylinder occupies the same predetermined position with reference to the independently mounted front stops and cam. The fact that the cylinder may move backward from this position more or less from any reason, as the variable springing of the cylinder driving mechanism due to different speeds of the machine, can have no effect upon the position of the sheet. It

has the further advantage that the sheet is taken up by the gripper when the front stops are stationary and sufficient time is thereafter provided to permit the front stops to lift after the sheet is seized and before the sheet is required to pass out beneath them. By reason of these advantages the machine is enabled to place the impression upon the sheet with great accuracy, or in exact register, and at great speed and irrespective of variations in speed of the press.

The invention, in its broader aspects,'is not limited to the particular constructions shown, nor to any particular constructions by which it. has been or may be carried into efiect, as many changes may bemade in the construction without departing from the main principles of the invention and w thout sacrificing its chief advantages.

lVhat I do claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A printing press including in combination, a reciprocating cylinder, grippers carried by said cylinder, front gages for positioning the sheet, means for causing said grippers to close on the sheet while the cylinder is moving toward the sheet and ust prior to the end of such movement, whereby the edge of the sheet after being gripped is pushed slightly back from the front stop and means for raising the front stop when the edge of the sheet is so pushed back.

2. A printing press, including in combination, a reciprocating cylinder, spring closed grippers on said cylinder, an arm on said cylinder for opening said grippers against their spring, a lever pivoted on a stationary support and having a part shaped to cause said gripper opening arm to open the grippers and to then permit them to close while the cylinder is moving in one direction, and means for moving said lever out of the path of said arm when the cylinder is'moving in the opposite direction.

v3. A printing press including in combination, a reciprocating cylinder, spring closed grippers on cylinder, an arm on said cylinder for opening said grippers against their spring, a lever pivoted on a stationary support, and having a part shaped to cause said gripper opening arm to open the grippers and to then permit them to close while the cylinder is moving in one direction, means for moving said lever out of the path of said arm when the cylinder is moving in the opposite direction, a front stop, and connections whereby said lever causes said front stop to raise to permit the sheet to pass onto the cylinder.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

AUSTIN-S. GRIMMER. Witnesses:

FRANCES KINREIGH, R. R. MURPHY. 

